This just in from our friends at Appalachia Rising!

Appalachia Rising: Voices from the Mountains

September 25-26, Washington DC

Appalachia Rising: Voices from the Mountains is a conference held in Washington DC on September 25-26, 2010 calling for the abolition of mountaintop removal and surface mining in Appalachia. It is a time for the national movement against strip mining to assemble and grow through a weekend of strategizing, workshops,  learning, and cultural events. We envision a vibrant weekend during which thousands will learn about the challenges Appalachia faces and ways to build a movement to end the destruction and plant the seeds of a sustainable and prosperous Appalachia.

This inset of the Beehive Collective's True Cost of Coal poster models organizing for a sustainable future in Appalachia.

Give us your input!

We have created a template for our weekend gathering, Voices of the Mountains, and are looking for you to fill in the details.

(more…)

Please join Mountain Justice in calling Senator Jim Webb on Monday July 26th and ask that he “KEEP ISON ROCK RIDGE STANDING” and support the communities of southwestern Virginia from mountaintop removal coal mining.

Call Senator Webb and ask him to 1. Thank the EPA for all they have done to protect coalfield communities from surface coal mining and 2. Ask the EPA to continue to intervene with the Ison Rock Ridge water permit!

To reach Senator Webb’s DC office call: 202-224-4024
or Toll Free: 1-866-507-1570

Questions, comments, or to find out how to take further action, please contact Nina at the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards office: (276) 523-4380

(more…)

Colin Flood, 22, Vermont:

In West Virginia an entire way of life is not only being destroyed but is becoming impossible to resume. The water is   no longer fit to drink; it has to be store bought. Every mountain that is destroyed takes with it hunting grounds, fishing waters, and many species of edible mushrooms and plants, all of which once provided income and sustenance free for the using. When the timber is gone, when the topsoil is gone, when the air and water are destroyed, the less than 4% of our nation’s energy needs that mountaintop removal provides will be small consolation. Explosives equivalent to a Hiroshima bomb are detonated across Appalachia every week, destruction on the same scale as the oil spill in the Gulf and the result of the same criminal disregard for health, safety and the law that companies like Massey and BP display on a daily basis.

(more…)

This just in from Coal River Mountain Watch:

SUNDIAL, W.Va.– Just after dawn this morning, a community member noticed a torrent of murky, grayish water flowing from a drainage in to the Coal River. The drainage is located on the banks of the river adjacent to Massey Energy’s Goals Coal Processing Plant and across from the entrance to Marsh Fork Elementary School.

Drainage release in Sundial, WV-- Notice the color of the water flowing from the pipe on the left.

At 7:10 a.m., two volunteers photographed the spill and took a water sample several hundred feet down stream, at the nearest accessible location.

We encourage all concerned citizens to call this polluting drainage release in to the West Virginia DEP’s emergency hot line, reached at 1-800-642-3074. The operator will ask for your name, number, and the location of the spill (Sundial, Raleigh County, along WV-3 between Goals Coal Processing Plant and Marsh Fork Elementary).

More photos here